Old Man Still running

At Katcina Mosa 100K, I paced Mark Ellison for the last 40 miles of the course.  I put together a slide-show audio/video about the experience.  The race is a tough mountain race that shares part of the course with the Squaw Peak 50, in the opposite direction.  I had great fun playing the pacer role.  One runner commented, "Boy you are a mean pacer."  Ha, ha, no whining allowed when I pace!  Mark successfully finished in under 17 hours.

Watch the video on Face Book (better quality): http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=228437290693

Watch the video on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YU_WqZog_XM

I paced Mark Ellison at Katcina Mosa 100K held in the mountains between Provo Canyon and Hobble Creek Canyon.  It was his first attempt to run past 50 miles.   I climbed up to Lightning Ridge, about mile 20 of the course and ran with him to the finish.    It was my birthday today and that was the perfect birthday present to be out running in the mountains with friends.   I really enjoyed running at a slower pace because I had plenty of energy the entire day.  I helped several runners keep their pace going by taunting them, barking orders, or just giving encouragement.   Also, I feasted on solid food at the aid stations instead of running on liquids and I always felt great, with plenty of energy.  Mark finished in about 16:42.   We pushed the last 20 miles pretty hard.   He had a rough recovery, so I drove his van home for him while he lied down in the back.

I will be putting together a video/slide show.  Stay tuned.  I'll update this entry when it is available.  I probably took about 100 pictures.

Taking it easy today.  I enjoy feeding my face for a couple days after a long race. Still I am losing weight.   Recovery from Saturday's 47-mile run is pretty much complete.   None of the usual symptoms after a 50-mile race because it was a slower pace, I ate much better than usual, and I didn't get dehydrated.  No soreness in the legs at all.

With about ten miles to go, I remember a young runner was telling me how he really struggled about five miles back, bonking between two long sections.  He commented how amazed he was that all I carried was two water bottles.  I did say, "Well, I do have a few jelly beans in my pockets."  That did make me think.   I ate pretty good at each aid station, but never got hungry between them.  I think because of all the low-carb morning runs I do, that I have trained my body to switch to fat-burning without difficulty.   

Another runner saw me come into an aid station during the hot afternoon.  He couldn't believe that I still had plenty of fluid in my bottles.  He had run out well before the station.   I looked at my bottles and shrugged.  I hadn't noticed, and wasn't thirsty.  Again, the slower pace just made it feel like a nice stroll in the mountains.  I really had a super time.  No pain.

Ignored the alarm at 3:45 and slept in.

Well, I did it again!  I ran a marathon before work.   I was up at 1:00 a.m. and and out the door around 1:30 a.m.   This time I ran a one-mile loop behind Rattlesnake ridge.   This loop is half dirt and half pavement.  The pavement is hilly, in a loop that is undeveloped, no houses.  I was going to do a long run instead of running in circles, but I hate hauling all the water, given the warm temperatures.  So instead I chose to do a loop again.   This loop is tougher than the one I did around rattlesnake ridge a couple weeks ago.  Even though there is some pavement, it has a little more hills.   Over the entire marathon, about 2,000 feet climb.   I chose a loop with some pavement because the moon was out.  I wanted to do this run without a flashlight and doing it half on pavement meant that I didn't have to worry about tripping if I couldn't see very well.  I ran the dirt portions by moonlight too, but was slowed someone.  I just couldn't push the pace speedy in moonlight.   But, I still finished the marathon in 4:15, which was pretty good, given the conditions.

The pavement loop is near the backs of some homes, but thankfully there weren't any dogs in the backyards so I didn't stir up any attention as I ran by 24 times.   As dawn approached a couple of deer came by and were curious as to what I was doing out there.

To count my loops, I made a pile of 24 rocks.  After each loop I moved one rock to the done pile.  That way I could keep track without thinking. much.  I had a good time and it was a great workout.

Split times

1	10:25	1.3
2	8:00
3	8:05
4	8:16
5	8:30
6	8:55
7	8:39
8	8:37
9	8:56
10	8:44
11	8:48
12	10:32
13	10:27
14	10:20
15	10:09
16	10:25
17	11:04
18	10:22
19	10:53
20	11:12
21	11:22
22	11:11
23	11:40
24	11:07
25	5:55	0.6
26.2	11:59	1.3

Ten hours of sleep last night, wow.   I guess I made up for yesterday.

I'm contemplating doing Timp repeats this weekend.   I vowed to never consider going after that stupid record again, but evil thoughts are entering my mind today.  1? 2? 3? 4? 5? 6?  Such evil thoughts.   Last time I tried this again I quit after 3.  Looks like dodging thunder storms could be a problem and it would be cold on top.   Just thoughts at this point.  The story about my 5 summits is at: http://www.crockettclan.org/blog/?p=42

Well, my evil thoughts of doing Timp repeats went away after I took a closer look at the weather forecast.  I probably could have got in three trips before the storms, but that would have shut me down.  It is too brutal to try in  bad weather.

I took a day vacation anyway.  When I got up, the morning was so beautiful and cool that I couldn't resist doing at least one trip up Timp.   I decided to push the pace harder then usual and see what I could do.   I met several people on the trail who knew me.  It is always fun to get a friendly greeting.   The wind was pretty bad, more than usual.  On the push up to the summit there were gusts of about 30 mph or more.   Going up the chimney area, the gusts were blowing up the mountain and actually blew my shirt clear up to my shoulders, almost off me entirely.  I had to tighten down my hat so it wouldn't blow away.  

Everyone going up to the summit was bundled up nicely, looked like they were heading into the arctic snow.  I was in shorts and a thin long-sleeved shirt.   One little kid warned me that it was cold and windy up there.   It wasn't a problem because I was moving so fast.  The temperature seemed pleasant most of the time.  However, I was glad that I was not attempting repeats today.  The temperature would sap energy after awhile because of the wind.

Coming down, near the chimney area, a group of goats waited to let me go, so they could go up the trail.  There were 7 of them, 3 adults and 4 cute kids.  Boy can they run across steep slopes!

I ran down pretty hard.   At one point, I passed two ladies going down.  I shouted out and gave them a warning with plenty of time, but one of the ladies had a dog on a leash.  Instead of moving to the same side of the trail with her dog, she moved to the other side and had the cord extending across the trail.  I didn't see it until it was across my neck.  Thankfully, it didn't take off my head.  I just continued on with my head attached.

I was very pleased with my pace and was certain that I could set a PR for a round trip.  I thought my PR was 3:42, so I pushed it hard enough to make sure I broke it with plenty of time to spare.  I finished in 3:36:51.   I was pleased.  But, when I went home and checked my records, I discovered that my PR was 3:35:50.   Dang, I missed it by a minute.

I reached the summit in 2:13, and my descent was 1:23.   That descent is a PR!  It didn't feel like I was pushing it very hard.  It was my 4th Timp summit for the year and my 60th career summit.

Splits:

10-minute rock	0:10:12
Scout Falls	0:21:48
switchback corner	0:43:51
Emerald Lake Trail Jct	1:23:29
Saddle	1:51:14
Summit	2:13:11
Saddle	2:26:55
Emerald Lake Trail Jct	2:42:28
switchback corner	3:07:36
Scout Falls	3:22:56
10-minute rock	3:30:11
trailhead	3:36:51

 

Well, I wasn’t really in the race, but I ran the course 25 minutes after the field started.  I waited too long to enter this race, so when I woke up this morning, I decided to drive to the mouth of Provo Canyon, run up 10 miles to the starting point, and then run the course chasing the field.

I started my run a little before 6 a.m. and ran up the Provo River Parkway.  I would climb about 1,500 feet over the ten miles to reach the start of the half marathon.   It was nice to give my ankle a break from the trails and get some speed work on the pavement.   I pretty much had the parkway to myself as I wound my way up the canyon.  I could see people setting up the aid stations. Once I reached Vivan Park, I ran along the road climbing up South Provo Fork.  The busses were coming down the road toward me.

With about 1.5 miles to go, I saw the front runners blasting down the road toward me.  I made sure I was hugging the left shoulder of the road to stay out of the way.   Then a sea of hundreds of runners came toward me covering the entire road.   I stayed way left, but still some runners weren’t paying attention, not expecting someone to be running UP the road.  I had to slow my pace to avoid head-on collisions.  Many wise-guys would tell me I was going in the wrong direction.   Several runners called out my name.   Finally the field passed by and then the walkers were gone too.  It was quiet again and a beautiful morning in the canyon.  

I continued my run up the canyon until I reached the starting line.   All was quiet, not a soul was there.  I could see a long line of porto-potties standing quiet in a row.   Without any fan-fare, I started my stop watch and was away for my half-marathon run, 25 minutes after the official start.    I could tell right away that I wouldn’t be able to sustain the usual fast pace down the canyon.  My legs already had 10 uphill miles on them and also there wasn’t anyone around to compete with, to push the pace.   Also, my run up and down Timpanogos in 3:36 yesterday could still be felt.  I decided to try to maintain a steady marathon pace.

The first few miles were disappointing because of all the trash that had been thrown down on the road by the sea of runners.   There were also tons of sweat shirts thrown here and there.  Why didn’t they use the bags that would be taken to the finish?   After about 2.5 miles, I reached the first aid station and the walkers bringing up the rear.

It was very interesting passing hundreds of runners.  First, there were the over-weight walkers, struggling down the road.   Next, came the power walkers.   Finally some runners appeared, looking like they were really struggling.   Then came the slow women runners talking non-stop to their friends, out for their usual run/walk for the morning.    Then came an amazing sea of women runners.  Where were the men?   They were all women, jogging pretty well, pushing hard enough that they were not chatting with friends.   My running pace was considerably faster.   One woman yelled out, “Hey, quit running so fast!”   I laughed and explained I started late.

On and on I went.   Down by Bridal Veil Falls, the course headed up a road for  a three-mile out and back.  The uphill was a good challenge.   I pushed the pace very hard, running about twice as fast as the runners behind me.   It was fun to see all the runners coming back toward us.  One of them called out to me.  It was my step-brother.   I’m sure he was wondering why I was running that far back in the pack.

Once heading downhill again, I pushed the speed again harder.  It was an obstacle course passing hundreds of runners.   Little by little the runners looked more fit and their pace was better, but as we reached the 11 mile-mark, I could see many runners struggling with the distance.    With only a couple miles, I pushed it hard, knowing that my 23-mile run was almost over.

As I approached the finish line, I heard my name called out a couple times.  Before I reached the finish line, I pulled off the course and hit my watch.   My time was 1:43:42.    Not bad for miles 10-23.   My pace was consistent with my average marathon pace (under 3:30 pace).  I suspect if I would have run it on fresh legs with competitors, I could have shaved off 7-8 minutes.   I enjoyed telling my tale of my morning to several friends and then ran another mile back to my car.

Slept in. Body seeking some rest and healing.

At 3 a.m. I went up into the foothills for a hilly workout on trails.  As I was running up the road, a Saratoga cop car came by.   He took a close look at me but didn't bother to stop.   I ran a 2.3-mile loop three times and took some side trips up canyons to get some elevation climb.

It was a real struggle this morning and not very fun.  The ankle was really complaining and I have another issue that I'll visit with the doctor on Monday.   Then my lower back was painful.   It was just one of those days.   Perhaps I need to take a couple days off.  We'll see.   I did have the top mileage for the month on the blog, but I've fallen to third place now.

Well, after a bad training run yesterday morning, I got right back on the horse and headed back out at 3:00 a.m. again this morning.  I had a great run.  The ankle wasn't a problem. I think if I don't run for two days the ankle starts to tighten up.  I guess I will try to keep working it.   This morning, I went back up in the foothills to run up a hidden canyon that I couldn't seem to find yesterday but could see on Google Earth.  I also know I hiked up it about ten years ago.   Sure enough I found it.  I thought the ATV road going into it was just a spur off of another road to a smaller canyon to the south.  But this canyon is a much deeper canyon, about 0.6 mile until it ends.   The canyon does continue up steeper but it isn't runnable because of all the trees, brush, rocks...no trail.  But the road was a nice incline, great for hill training. 

So, I ended up running all over the place.   Up, down, up, down, loops, and short steep hill climbs.   I climbed about 2,000 total.   I kept my eye out at times for the metor shower, but only saw one shoot star.  The moon was very bright.   It was a great morning.  The sun is rising later.  I finished my run at about 6:00 a.m. and the dawn glow is bright enough to run without a light and relects off of Utah Lake....a beautiful sight.

Out running again at 3 a.m.   Saw several meteors, part of the meteor shower.   I tried to find a new trail, a loop on the north-east corner of Lake Mountain.   After it made a 100-foot climb, I lost it in the grass.  I thought I was in the wrong place so didn't look hard.  But after checking Google Earth again, I understand now where it continued.   I'll try it again.   I ran around and through the Church farm.

Rested, caught up on sleep

I did a very early morning run up Mount Timp, starting around 2:00 a.m.  This was my Timp Summit #61.  I ran with jun, my brother Bob, and my brother-in-law Ed.   Jun wrote up a very good summary of the adventure.  See his writeup.  I led the pack and when I got a little lazy, Ed noticed and would tell me to start working again.  Our splits were fairly good and typical for me for the first half of the climb, but instead of fading the second half, my buddies helped me keep the pace strong.  By the time we reached the basin, we had passed all the hikers who had started as early as midnight.

We made the summit in 1:57.   I pushed the last segment hard and reached the top a minute or two ahead of Ed and jun.  

From there, my legs felt super, so as I descended, and when I noticed Ed and jun couldn't keep up, I decided to just go for it.   My pace down was the fastest I have ever done, even in  the daylight.   My balance felt great, energy high, and no pain in the ankle.    I passed groups of hikers so fast that no words were even spoken between us as I flew by them.   As I approached each group, I would let out a whoop, then scream, "coming through!" and finally yell, "Please step aside."  As I blasted past, I would say "Thank you!"   This seemed to do the trick nicely.  They all cleared off the trail in time and just watched the crazy guy with the green light blast by in the dark.

In the basin I looked back up and saw that I was far ahead of jun and Ed, so I continued the blistering pace.  I reached the junction with the Emerald Lake trail at 2:21.  Holy Cow!  I was crushing my PR.   I reached a huge group of college kids who blinded me with their lights.  They confused me and I started running far off the trail.  "Where is the trail?"  I yelled out.  They all were helpful to point the way to me and I flew by them again.

My pace continued fast below the basin, down the rock slide but then I started to have problems.   The groups of hikers started to distract me.  Right after I passed one group, I took my eyes off the trail and down I went.  I knocked my head on a rock, bounced back up, felt my head, discovered it was still there, and continued on, just a little slower.   Within a half mile, I met another group who were not as fast to step aside.  As I approached, I looked up to make sure I didn't plow into them, but both my feet slid off of a wet slick rock.  Down I went again, very hard.  I hit both my forearms on rocks, the left started to swell a bump right away and the right felt worse.  I bounced up and ran by the group.  I slowed down another notch but still kept up a good fast past, just not crazy fast any more.

I worried about my right arm.  The hand started to get a little numb and extending my fingers caused pretty good pain.  I hoped I didn't bust it.   Oh well, nothing to do but get down, so why not try to still get down fast.  Finally I was through with the groups of hikers who started early and I knew there would usually be a large gap before more hikers who started closer to dawn.   I looked far up the mountain but there was no sign of jun or Ed.  I must have been nearly a mile ahead.

Well, my face plants weren't over.  This time I simply tripped on a big rock.   I scraped my legs and elbow, but bounced up again, this time walking for a couple dozen yards.  Boy, I was getting beat up today.  Not time to whine, I had a great time going and needed to push to the finish.

From Scout Falls to the bottom I again met tons of hikers.  I continued my pattern of warnings and they worked fine except for two guys who told me that I should run off the trail instead of them stepping aside.  Oh well.  My warnings I guess worked, because when jun came through all these hikers they all knew what to do for him.  Jun said one hiker said to him, "The guy with the green light is way ahead of you!"

My arm felt better toward the bottom so I stopped worrying and again pressed the pace hard for a good finish.   I finished in a new PR!   3:10:36.   My previous record was 3:35:50.  I crushed it.   I had run down from the summit in 1:13.  It made quite a difference having others along to push me.  I had a lot of gas left in the tank.  If I had not fallen, I think my time would have been 5-7 minutes faster.

I washed off my wounds and cooled my arm in the water, and then went to the car to inspect the damage to my arms.  They weren't that bad.   As I was resting, I saw jun's light.  He finished in about 3:18.   Ed, with less experience running down trails, arrived in about 3:39.  Both are outstanding times.   So we waited for Bob.  I thought he would finish around 4:20, but when he had not arrived by 4:30, I decided to go run up the trail to find him.  I hoped that he wasn't injured clear up at the top.  But within a half mile or so, I found him running hard down.   I joined in and he finished in 4:40.    Wow, it had been a wonderful morning.  We beat the storms and had perfect weather for the run.   I never needed to put on my gloves or jacket.

My splits were:

10-minute rock	0:09:00
Scout Falls	0:20:16
switchback corner	0:39:00
Emerald Lake Trail Jct	1:14:50
Saddle	1:39:04
Summit	1:57:48
Saddle
Emerald Lake Trail Jct	2:21:55
switchback corner	2:42:18
Scout Falls	2:56:28
10-minute rock	3:04:20
trailhead	3:10:36

Another day of rest. Trying to heal up a nagging internal injury.  Saw the doctor (specialist) today and he wasn't concerned at all, understanding the amount of running I do.  He didn't even tell me to lay off.   So, I'll put up with it for another month, get through Wasatch and Bear and see if it heals up.

I was very encouraged by my Timp run on Saturday morning.  Crushing my PR by 25 minutes felt very good and I wasn't running at race pace, probably about 85%.  So, I'm feeling pretty happy about my training progress.  I wish I lived closer to the Wasatch course and could do some training on it.  Oh well.   Altitude at 11,000+ was not an issue at all Saturday.  That is kind of surprising because I do most of my training around 5,000 feet and have only got up above 10,000 feet once per week.

Park City Marathon on Saturday.  I entered it to force myself NOT to enter Leadville 100 again this year....just too expensive to go out to Colorado this year.   So I'll go do a nice long tempo run at that Park City altitude and have some fun.

I was out running a little before 3:00 a.m.   Went up into the Lake Mountain foothills to find a trail loop I failed to fully locate last week.  I succeeded this time.   It is a 1.7 mile loop with about 250 elevation climb.   I started the loop in the northeast corner and headed south up a canyon, a steady climb, ending with a short steep climb up onto a ridge.  Here is where I lost the trial last week.  The grass is high and when I looked closer, I could see a double track road that traversed around the ridge into the next canyon.  It was pretty level, but challenging because of the dry grass, sometimes waist-high.  But the grass was sparse enough and would just hit against my legs in that section.  Once in the next canyon, it is a nice fast descent down the canyon to the main road that runs along the Church farm.  I needed to hop over a log fence.  I think the fence was put up about eight years ago.  That explains why the grassy road doesn't receive traffic anymore.  But it is great for running.

I ran the loop six times.   My times were: 23:42, 20:31, 20:02, 18:39, 20:54, and 28:17.  So my fastest loop was just a little faster than an 11-minute mile.  That shows how tough the loop was.   I'm sure I could do it quite a bit faster during the day, but with the dark, at times my flashlight wasn't good enough to illuminate the trail through the grass, so I just had to feel the trail.   It was a good workout.  Working the climbs felt good.

I was able to watch the moon, just a sliver, rise above the Wasatch mountains, with Venus above it.   Orion was low in the sky to the right. As I finished, there additionally was a glow behind the mountains as the dawn was arriving.  Not a cloud in the sky.

Slept in.  I had a weird running dream when I woke up.  I was running lap 99 of a 100-miler.  Of course the course was inside a building.  Almost all my running dreams involve running inside houses.  Go figure.  A couple weeks ago a running dream was outside but it was distressing because I was running right behind some front-runners and when we turned a corner I saw a runner ahead purposely  move a barrier so that runners behind would take a wrong turn.  Even though I saw him do that, I took the wrong turn. (I'm not very smart in my dreams.)  I was very mad that this runner did this.

Planning on running Kings Peak on Friday and then Park City Marathon on Saturday.  So there is no reason to go crazy about mid-week miles.  Resting and healing.

PM

Ran with the dog six miles from the house up to the top of a canyon on Lake Mountain.   The little dog got pooped out near the top, but with a five minute rest she was able to keep up on all the downhills.   I need to do more afternoon runs to get some heat training in.   At Wasatch it always is hot from Alexander Ridge to Lambs Canyon.

I ran up to the top of the highest peak in Utah, Kings Peak (13,528 feet). The summmit gets about 5,000 visitors per year. However, few people run from the trailhead to summit and back in one day. Most people do a three-day backpacking trip.  This was my 8th Kings Peak Summit and the sixth time I have done the summit in one day. I made the run with jun and his neighbor Eric. Read jun's detailed writeup here.

The trail is very technical including about five miles of bowling ball trail and another three miles of boulder hopping.  It is very tough.  I worried about Eric, a road running, doing this run as his first major trail run.  It did check back his speed, but he did very well.

Our run was about 13 miles in and 13 miles out, with about 5,000 feet elevation climb. I signed up for this run in order to get more altitude training before Wasatch 100. I really enjoyed the run up, but had a rough time running back down because of record warm temperatures. It wasn't really that hot at that altitude, but I just haven't been training at all in the heat, so it really affected me. It sapped my energy with about 9 miles to go. I recovered some, but later ran out of water and became badly dehydrated. I finally had to dip into a side stream with two miles to go. I hope there weren't any nasties in the water. It sure tasted good.

It turned out still to be the fastest summit and round trip I have ever done. It was 3:40 to the summit and 6:58 round trip running time. I did stop the watch at the top and a few times waiting for the others to catch up.

My splits heading up were:

Alligator Lake trail: 0:27

Elkhorn Crossing: 1:00

Dollar Lake sign: 1:22

Trail sign: 1:36

Gunsight Pass: 2:09

Andersen Pass: 2:53

Kings Peak Summit: 3:40

My pace from Andersen Pass to the summit was pathetic. The altitude above 12,000 slammed me. I kept getting very dizzy and would have to stop and get blood back in my head. I even stayed away from the cliffs, for fear I would faint and tumble off the mountain. Ha, ha. Once on top, in a few minutes I felt fine. No headache, which I usually get up there.

After returning to Gunsight Pass, as I started to kick it into gear in an attempt to catch up to jun, I took a major face-plant.   I did a shoulder roll, but bruised and scraped up my leg, shoulder, back, and bloodied a finger.  I layed on the trail for a couple minutes with Eric looking over me.   Finally I felt a little better and got up.   That is four bad face-plants in only one week.   That took the wind out of my sails.  I decided to take it easy the rest of the way.

I ran in the Park City Marathon, my third road marathon of the year.  What's up with that?  Am I converting to the dark-side of running?  Well, actually, this marathon is not your typical road marthon.  It is run at altitude and has about ten miles of dirt.  The hills are never-ending and it makes an amazing huge circle around the valley, visiting Deer Valley and Park City.  I think this marathon experience would be very attractive to ultrarunners.

Well, yesterday I ran marathon distance, doing a much tougher run up to the top of King's Peak (13,528 feet) and back with 5,000 feet of climbing.  What was I thinking running a marathon the very next day?  I've never been accused of having judgement that makes sense when it comes to my running.  Yesterday's mountain marathon left my legs somewhat tired, but not sore.  I was more worried about the stress my system experienced due to severe dehydration.  Also, I had only slept about 8 hours over the past 48 hours.   It was not the best way to rest up for a marathon.

However, I was excited to run in Park City because I really wanted to have a good long tempo run at 7,000 feet.  I didn't study the course much and was very suprised to discover how many hills we had to climb.  Oh well, what goes up, must come down, and I had a great time blasting down some hills, especially when they were dirt hills.

I wasn't very serious about this race.  I lined up mid-pack at the start, talking with my friend Jim.   As we were talking the horn sounded.  Oh, I guess I better start running. My race started very good.  I was surpised how well my legs felt.  I had to dodge and pass tons of runners, but my first mile was 7:17.  I lost track of the mile signs, but I reached mile 4 at 30:28.  Not bad, about 7:30 pace on some good uphills. Mile 5 was 6:59 and mile 6 (hills) was 8:36.  I kicked it back into gear with a 7:26 mile 7 and a 8:01 mile 8. 

About that point, the wheels came off my race.   I knew I just couldn't sustain that pace today.  We were running on the long railroad trail which was dirt.  I loved the dirt and the views of the valley, but after awhile I was ready for something new.   Mile 9 was 8:39, Mile 10 was 8:54,  Mile 11 was 10:10, and Mile 12 was 9:51.

I next started to have severe gastro problems, very uncomfortable.  My pace slowed significantly to 10:31, 12:11, and 11:41.   We then made a long hot climb up to Deer Valley, doing a loop.  I recovered somewhat and no longer had scores of runners passing me.  Next splits were 11:11, 9:40, and a fast 8:13 as I enjoyed cruising the downhill, passing many runners.

I was now in "hang-on" mode as we ran above Park City.  10:23, 10:53, bringing me to mile 20.   The gastro problem was crippling me.  So, no other choice but to take an 8-minute bathroom break.  Pretty funny to take such a long break during a fast marathon race.  I believe the dehydration from yesterday just stressed out my digestive system too much.  Bummer.  I worried that I would need to visit every porto-poddy from there to the finish, but I didn't have to.

Oh well, I now was back in top shape.   I looked at my watch and realized that finishing in sub-4 hours was very unlikely.  However, I had plenty of spring in my step, so why not end this marthon training run in fine shape?  

Mile 21 was 8:52, Mile 22 was 9:38.   I then dug deep on the downhill to the finish and really kicked up the speed, passing probably 30-40 runners along the way.  I eventually caught up to runners I had seen at mile 20 before my long break.   It was becoming very hot.  I drank as much as possible and started to splash myself with cool water.  My final miles were: 8:06, 8:03, 8:42, and 8:16, with a 1:35 for the home stretch.  It was a great feeling to finish off strong.

So I finished my 5th marathon in 4:05, my slowest time.  But how many of those other runners also ran a marathon distance yesterday?  Ha, ha.

As I was resting at the finish, I saw Smooth finish about 20 minutes after me.  She had an impressive race!   I wished I could have watched others finish, but there was no shade at the finish and it was getting hotter.  I decided to just head home.

It was a wonderful two days, getting in some great altitude and heat training.

Did a good job in catching up on sleep.

I feel fully recovered, but I'm likely to take a few days off running to try to heal a nagging problem.  Probably will hit the pool.

After work, ran in the heat up into the hills with the dog.  It was tough.  Aches and pains that were concerning, but they feel more like over-training pains.  The body just sending signals not to over-do things.   I've been getting plenty of sleep the past couple days and seem to be healing some minor problems.

Four easy miles on the road this morning.   Woke up at 5:00, feeling rested and had no excuses, so went out and did a few miles.  The dog was up with her leash, so I took her along.  Crazy little dog did ten miles with me in the past 12 hours.  She loves running.

More resting.  Feels like I'm healing up.  Its also nice to just take a break.  I plan to get up early tomorrow for a long run.

In the mail today, I received my cool awards for the Tahoe Rim 100 last month.  It was also the 100-mile national championship for USA Track & Field and Road Runners of America.  I did very well and somehow won my age group (50-54).  Kind of cool to get awards stating that I'm a national champion.  I was 18th overall with a time of 25:43.  There were 10 finishers in my age group and probably about 10 others who didn't finish.

However, I don't let this go to my head because I know that race isn't nearly as competitive as Wasatch 100 coming up in two weeks.

Out running at 2:30 a.m.   Ran clear out past Eagle Mountain city center into the middle of Cedar Valley and then made a huge loop back through the ranches and across the Church farm.   I was pleased with a feeling of strength.  It felt like I could run for a very long time.   It is funny how when you take just a few days off running, you starting thinking you are losing your fitness.  Not so.   By the end of the run my foot was hurting.  That is normal after not running for a few days.  It should feel better tomorrow.

morning.   Our department went up and did trail work up at Big Water on a new trail spur to the left.  Tomorrow we will see how fast I can run up and down Lone Peak.

I went up Lone Peak for the first time with my bro-in-law, Ed. He had had been up it several times and did his best to guide me up. We started from Suncrest at 5 a.m. in the dark and stuggled to find the right dirt roads to lead us to Jacobs Ladder. After about 20 minutes, we finally arrived.   We could see some headlamps of hikers heading up Corner Canyon, so that helped us merge to the right trail.

Lone Peak summit is at 11,253 feet.   We would end up climbing about 6,500 feet. Quite the workout!

Dawn arrives, about 2,000 feet up.  Lone Peak to the left of me.

At the bottom of Jacob's Ladder, in the dark, we met the hikers heading up.  We said hi and then started pushing very hard up the the very steep trail.  Holy Cow, that thing was steep, but I knew it was great training for Wasatch in two weeks.   We made very good time and reached the meadow in about 1:10.   Here, our troubles started.

Ed running through the meadow

I should have read the trail description.  "Many people get lost just past the meadow so pay attention to your route from this vantage point."  Oh boy!   We were running pretty fast at that point and saw a hiker to the left, so my eye naturally missed the important junction.  The trail descriptions warns:  "The fork to the north (left) leads to the Outlaw Cabin.  DO NOT follow this trail."

The trail to the left was marked well so we continued a climb up to the top of a ridge.  But then the trail started heading down.   I knew it couldn't be right and Ed just couldn't remember.   Finally I was convinced that we should head back to the meadow.  We ran into the hiking dude, and he assured us that we were going the right way.  We followed his directions, but again once up on the ridge it all seemed wrong.   Finally the dude made his way up and he again insisted that we just weren't following his directions.  He pointed the way and then it dawned on me he wasn't heading up to Lone Peak summit.   I asked, "Are you going to Lone Peak?"  He said yes and pointed to a small knob overlook nearby.    I shook my head and said, "no that isn't Lone Peak."   We quickly left, headed down toward the meadow, found some cairns heading up, tried to follow them but the trail disappeared.  We bushwhacked and climbed clear up to a massive ridge to get our bearings and did plenty of bushwhacking.  Finally, I insisted that this was all wrong and convinced Ed that there must be a major junction in the meadow that we missed while we were running fast.  The hiker dude had misled us.   After about an hour delay, we returned to the meadow and sure enough found a junction.

Finally we were on the right trail.  I expressed concern that with the hour delay, I did not have enough water.   I had planned on a five-hour adventure, but this would be much longer.   We decided to continue.  The rest of the hike to the summit was a challenge and frustrating.   We just couldn't push the pace fast because there was too much route-finding.  If we went too fast, we kept going off trail.   Ed's memory of the route was not detailed enough to help much.   So we pushed ahead at a good clip, but not blazing fast.  We caught up with the hikers we had greeted below and thankfully they gave me about 16 oz. of water.   I drank most of it immediately and started to feel better.  But I was still dehydrated.

Me and Ed on Lone Peak Summit

The altitude was really bothering me for some reason.  I kept getting very dizzy.  I'm guessing that dehydration was a factor, but I was bothered that I was having so much trouble at 11,000 feet and above.   Finally we reached the summit and had a nice break talking to a little family at the top.   If I throw out all the time we lost going off course, I believe we made it to the top in 3:30.

Looking toward Utah Lake and my home

Down we went and I was now in good spirits again.   But that didn't last long because everytime I pushed the pace faster, we would lose the trail.  It was frustrating.  But we descended pretty fast.  After the meadow I really kicked it into gear for awhile and we lost elevation super quickly.   But then I had to slow down.  I only had a few drops of water left and I knew I was badly dehydrated (I think I was down about 6-7 pounds from the start).  Each time we ran into hikers we asked for water.   Finally, near the bottom of Jacob's Ladder a young hiker gave me about 12 oz.   That would be enough to finish.  We ran again, pretty fast and made our way through a maze of jeep trails back to Suncrest.

Our adventure took about 7 hours.   But when we were on the right trail, it was about 3.5 hours up and less then 2 hours down.

I'm not sure if I will do it again any time soon.  It is just too tough to go fast unless you really know the trail.  I think it would take me 2-3 times more to learn the trail well enough to go fast.  I think a 4.5 hour round trip is possible for me.  If I do it again, I would need to haul up much more water and cache some half-way up.

Out the door at 2:30 a.m.  The dog was standing there with sad eyes, with her leash in her mouth.   "No, not this morning, I'm going too far for you."  I again ran out to Eagle Mountain city center and made a big loop that included the Ranches.  About 2/3rd was dirt, the rest pavement.   I ran into another runner in Cedar Valley with dogs about 4:45.  That is unusual.  I never see anyone up that early out that far.

322 miles this month!  That is my second-highest month every.   Two 300+ mile months in a row.   I'm still 41 miles behind last year at this point.